The importance of effective communication, employee recognition, growth opportunities, and accommodating employee needs to retain talent

Kara:
My name is Kara Neary. I work for a company called Schlumberger. It's an oil and gas services company based out of Houston, Texas. And my role is the global HR analyst for the company.

Shaked:
What are the biggest HR challenges today?

Kara:
Making sure everybody is aligned with using the same processes and moving us into the digital space where things are getting more automated and shifting the focus back to being more employee facing and spending time with the employees and making sure they're engaged and all of that.

Shaked:
What do you think will be the main factors for employee engagement? Is it a good communication? Is it benefits? recognition?

Kara:
We actually send out a survey once a year that tests the sentiment of the employees and we collect that feedback and create action plans out of it. And some of the insights that we receive from that was that they want higher visibility from leadership as to where the company is going and what's the vision of the company and things like that. So communication's definitely key there and making sure that everybody that works in HR Locally is aligned with similar vision and being able to communicate that effectively to their employees. Also making sure that our employees feel like they're heard. Managers are trained on how to do soft skills and engage our employees and make sure they feel recognized. We're fighting against that great resignation that's happening right now and making sure that employees are compensated well. Coming up with creative ways of how to accommodate things like - are women getting, you know, proper, you know, maternity leave and making sure that they have a job when they come back. Also making sure that there's growth opportunities in the company.

Shaked:
One tip that you can give to new HR managers, new business owners or managers in general, something that you wish that you knew earlier.

Kara:
When you enter a new job and you're trying to transition to a new company, you could be really overwhelmed by the politics of it all. But just focus on who you are and where you were yesterday and just focus on keep growing every single day. And, and so you always judge yourself against yourself and not the people around you. And don't fall victim to that imposter syndrome, because that's a lie.